


A Montressan Roller Coaster Ride

by darkinsanity13



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Demimasculine Shiro (Voltron), Fluff, Gen, Genderfluid Pidge | Katie Holt, Nonbinary Hunk (Voltron), Platonic Relationships, Spectrum Zine, Team as Family, Trans Male Lance (Voltron), Will probably add more tags later when I remember, references to Treasure Planet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-08 22:52:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12263712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkinsanity13/pseuds/darkinsanity13
Summary: Once upon a time, Lance fell in love with a movie called Treasure Planet.





	A Montressan Roller Coaster Ride

**Author's Note:**

> Woo, I'm happy to finally post this! This is my piece for the trans-themed charity fanzine [Spectrum](https://voltrans-zine.tumblr.com/), and I'm actually super proud of it. In terms of length though, it kinda turned out to be a beast (at least by my standards). The maximum for being in the printed version was stated to be less than 3k, which I had _thought_ would be no problem because my other three Voltron stories that I wrote were about 4.5k each, but then this kinda got away from me and I ended up with a little over 7k. Oops. It all turned out alright though!
> 
> Despite featuring a trans male Lance, this piece is not meant to be considered part of my Breathing Underwater series. Several of my headcanons between this and that are shared though! Also I put footnotes at the end like in that series, which are not in the zine version (mostly because of the length), so if you happened to get the zine here's a reason to read my piece again! 8D /shameless
> 
> Coming up with the title was a gigantic struggle; I think it was literally as I was writing the last couple paragraphs that I had a "eureka!" moment, because I kept trying to come up with something from [I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme) from Treasure Planet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex9AWegauJM), but the lyrics didn't really fit the mood I was going for regarding this fic. It was only when I realized that the major focus was on the solar surfing that I was like "why don't I make it a double reference", and so the title is a reference to both Treasure Planet (Montressor is the planet that Jim is from) and Lilo and Stitch (the song Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride, which plays when they're all surfing). ~~Yes I'm a Disney nerd what of it.~~
> 
> Lastly, thank you to [VictoriannWings](http://archiveofourown.org/users/VictoriannWings/pseuds/VictoriannWings) for betaing this; I'm still sorry I made you cry even if they were happy tears ;w;

Once upon a time, years before he started going by the name Lance, Lance fell in love with a movie called Treasure Planet.

He’d been at a point where he was somewhat tired of the princess movies his sister Vivi always wanted to watch with him and Jenny. He liked them and all (the dresses were kind of pretty), but they just didn’t give him that _spark_ anymore. It was only when Tristan was tasked with babysitting a couple of the neighbour kids and invited Lance and Izzy along to play with them that he got introduced to what would become his favourite movie. The kids insisted on watching it, the youngest in particular throwing a rather nasty fit when Tristan tried telling them no. **[1]**

Within the first five minutes of the movie, Lance was entranced. Really, what wasn’t there to love about it? It involved pirates, space, adventuring, and cool fight scenes. During the entire film he sat enthralled, something that Tristan and Izzy teased him about when they went home later, but he ignored them. They didn’t understand the revelation he’d had.

The next morning he declared to the family that he was going to be like Jim and go on a space adventure. After all, Jim was _so cool_. He insisted that his mama buy a copy of the movie so he could watch it over and over again, and there hardly went a week where he didn’t watch it at least once. He had all the dialogue memorized, every frame of animation burned into his mind. He started begging his parents and older siblings to take him out to the beach at night so he could look out at the stars, a couple times even convincing Tristan to take him out on the family longboard so the lights from the city would be even dimmer. Each time he surfed, he dreamt of the day when the surfboard could float on air, soar through the clouds and maybe reach the far-off stars. One time he even attempted to cut his hair like Jim’s, but the moment his mom came home and discovered the hastily done undercut-rattail combo, she all but wrestled him back into the bathroom to shave the rest of it off because “no child of mine is going to look like a cartoon character on any day that isn’t Halloween”.

(He got an even bigger talking to when he got sent home from school with his left ear pierced when he was 13, though that one had more to do with how he’d let one of the older students do it during recess when the teachers weren’t paying attention and he was grounded for two weeks for ignoring all sense of safety.) **[2]**

The years passed, and while his obsession with the movie waned and many other things changed (like his favourite subject in school, and his voice deepening while on T, and his latest crush), his determination to set out for the stars never wavered. Go figure that he end up in his own unwitting space adventure, albeit one with fewer cyborgs, mutinous pirates and treasure (so far). It wasn’t quite what he had hoped for as a child, but even if his adventure wasn’t like the one Jim Hawkins took on, it was an adventure nonetheless, and one he got to have with a second family he had quickly grown to love just as much as his first.

Movie nights became a regular occurrence about two months into Voltron’s war against the Galra Empire. It started up when Lance and Hunk realized how stressed everyone was getting, and that the hobbies and coping strategies they’d all adopted in the first couple weeks weren’t working as well. The Alteans were always saying they needed to bond more, so what better way to do so than to snuggle up together somewhere comfortable and watch movies? The suggestion had initially been met with bafflement from Allura and Coran, and resistance from Keith and Pidge (Keith because he felt training would be more productive, Pidge because they had too many projects they wanted to work on), but once Shiro decided he was onboard Operation Movie Night was a go.

The first night hadn’t really gone to plan; they’d all gathered and sat in the common room where the seats were only vaguely comfortable, everyone with their own little bubble and no intention of cuddling, and then it turned out the only available movies to watch were whatever could be found on the Castle’s servers. Even better, the average Altean movie was equivalent to avant-garde indie films on Earth, and to add to the confusion, there was some disconnect between the Castle’s translation module and the videos so they were only in Altean. Halfway into the first movie, most of them were beginning to wonder if they should write the night off as a disaster and try again some other time (if at all), when suddenly Shiro burst into laughter.

Stunned, they could only stare as he devolved into a fit of seemingly endless giggling, clutching his stomach and struggling to breathe through the chuckles after several minutes. The group looked to each other in bewilderment, silently asking if any of them knew what was making him laugh so much. Several were fighting the urge to laugh themselves from the contagiousness if the confused smiles on Hunk and Allura’s faces and the quiet snorts Lance and Pidge let out were any indication. Eventually he calmed down enough to speak, wiping his eyes as the last remnants of his laughter tapered off.

“I-I’m sorry everyone, I didn’t mean to just start laughing like that,” Shiro began between pants, occasionally letting out another giggle. “Somehow I got reminded of those bad lip reading videos and then I started doing some bad lip reading of my own in my head and it just got too ridiculous.” **[3]**

Allura and Coran only looked more perplexed, but the paladins all simultaneously had comprehension spread across their faces. Glancing to the screen where the movie was still playing, an idea flickered into Lance’s head and a smirk grew on his lips.

“So what kind of stuff are you getting from this, Shiro?” he asked.

Keith rose his eyebrow at Lance, but Hunk and Pidge appeared to catch Lance’s drift and shared grins. Shiro blinked in mild surprise, then mirrored the three of them with a grin of his own.

“Well let’s see…ah, that green-haired one is saying, ‘The baboon eats jellyfish in the morning’...”

Before long, all of them were keeled over laughing, all piping in with their own terrible interpretations on the script and cracking up anew. The Alteans (particularly Coran) had been indignant at first, insisting that what the paladins were saying was completely wrong and nonsensical, but eventually they understood that that was the entire point of their little game and joined in the fun. They even went as far to mute the voices to make it easier. Over the course of the night, everyone drifted closer to each other; Lance ended up practically in Hunk’s lap as Coran leaned against the Samoan with Allura using the older man’s lap as a cushion, while Pidge and Keith curled up on either side of Shiro.

So despite the near disastrous beginning, movie nights quickly became a frequent occasion, happening at least once a Spicolian Movement barring any missions or extenuating circumstances. It also became tradition to gather as many blankets, cushions, and cozy things as possible in preparation, dump them all on the floor and seats, then heap all together in a big cuddle pile and either did bad lip readings or made their own parodying commentary until everyone fell asleep. About a month after that first night, the combined efforts of Pidge and Hunk figured out a way to hook Pidge’s laptop up to play whatever videos they had saved on it. Which was something they’d built themself and had ten terabytes of storage, and therefore had quite a bit in terms of options. The team discovered the selection ran the gamut from Georges Méliès and Charlie Chaplin to the latest blockbusters; when questioned about it, Pidge simply shrugged and answered, “I like variety.” With that variety came themed nights, where they marathoned movies of the same genres, series, time periods, and more. The next morning after they’d all woken up and had breakfast, they would then discuss theme for the next movie night.

Lance was excited, practically jittering as he skipped down the castle halls to the cinema den. He’d been hyped all week for this night. Why? Because the theme was Disney Part 2, and they’d all agreed that his favourite would be on the list after missing it the last time, along with Shiro’s favourite. He was curious to know which movie Shiro would pick, but it didn’t overpower his anticipation for getting to watch Treasure Planet again. Finally arriving to the room, he slid through the doorway with a flourish, grinning wide when he saw he was the last one there.

“Alright, team, we all ready?” he announced, stance playfully authoritative. “Binders off?”

Pidge snorted from her spot next to Allura, the two of them having claimed the cushions closest to the laptop. “Check,” she drawled in amusement, tugging the blanket around her tighter when a slight chill managed to worm through an opening. Seeing that her friend was cold, Allura shuffled closer to provide a bit more warmth.

“Check on my part too. We all in our comfiest clothes?”

“Looks like it,” Shiro answered, squashed between Hunk and Coran (his favourite arrangement; he loved being sandwiched by two or more of his teammates, saying it helped ward the nightmares off). He was wearing the shirt the team had made him earlier in the week after watching Moana, the phrase _Just an Ordinary Demiguy_ painted across the front in black, grey, blue, and white lettering. This was not surprising as he’d barely taken it off since receiving the gift.

Beside Shiro, Coran gave a thumbs up, wearing his usual yelmor-patterned silk robe, boxers with tiny moustaches, and a shirt made to look like their paladin armour with orange as the accent colour (another gift made by the team). On Shiro’s other side Hunk smiled at eir friend, clad in yellow pyjamas with a bowl of space chips (made with the closest equivalent to potatoes the team had managed to find) in eir lap. **[4] [5]**

“C’mon, Lance, just sit down so we can start already,” Keith griped, sitting up to frown at the Blue Paladin. “You took your sweet time with your skin routine when we could have started something ages ago.”

“Yeesh, someone’s impatient,” grumbled Lance, padding over to plop down beside Keith. “Unlike _some_ people, I care about what my skin will look like when I’m older, and you just have to deal with that.”

“Keith’s just miffed because he’s been alone without a cuddle buddy while we were waiting for you,” Pidge teased with a smirk, the smug expression not falling even when Keith turned to glare at her as a blush coloured his cheeks.

“Aww, Keithy, don’t worry, you get me and my awesome cuddliness all to yourself tonight,” Lance sang, pulling Keith in for an overly affectionate hug and laughing when the other started to paw at his face in an attempt to regain some of his personal space.

“Shut up, let’s just start,” Keith huffed, quickly giving into the hug, slumping in defeat in a way that showed he was obviously exaggerating.

Grinning victoriously, Lance wiggled in his spot to get more comfortable then turned to Pidge. “You heard ‘im, Pidgekeeper, let’s get this show on the road! We can start with Shiro’s choice, then have Allura or Coran pick a random one, and we can finish off with Treasure Planet because we should always save the best for last!”

The rest of the team shared looks of exasperated amusement, Pidge in particular shaking her head and rolling her eyes as she smiled and reached for the laptop.

“Alright, Shiro, what are we starting off with?”

After watching Brother Bear and The Emperor’s New Groove (“Really, Lance? _This_ is where you got that idea?” “Hey, it got us out of that elevator shaft, didn’t it?”), it was finally time to watch Treasure Planet, and Lance was nearly bouncing in his seat from eagerness. It got to the point Keith had to put an arm around him to keep him from moving so much, something Lance quickly yielded to by leaning his head on Keith’s shoulder, though not without a playful pout. As the movie began, Lance found that even after all the years and viewings, he felt utterly in awe about the opening story, his eyes wide in childlike wonder. So immersed, he barely even noticed when the others began to doze off, the late hour and busy week finally catching up to them. **[6]**

Keith, however, remained mostly awake, his attention flickering between the movie and Lance, if only because the other boy kept making comments about how much he loved this part or that one, or quietly parroting the script under his breath. Ordinarily Keith would’ve found this frustrating because he couldn’t concentrate when more than one person was talking, but seeing Lance look so happy had him holding his tongue just this once.

“You really like this movie, huh?” he finally said somewhere about halfway through.

Lance turned his head to blink at him, looking as if he just remembered that his pillow was in fact a living being. After a moment he flushed slightly, sending a sheepish grin up to the Red Paladin. “Yeah,” he admitted, not sounding all that embarrassed. “I love it; it was my absolute favourite growing up. It’s the thing that first really inspired me to try going into space, among other things.”

“Yeah? What are your favourite things about it?”

“Well…it’s sort of hard to pick just a couple things because there’s so much about this movie I love,” Lance began, tapping his knee absently. “What I like has also changed a lot over time, like when I first saw it I really liked the action and adventure because my family had never really left Cuba or done anything exciting like that, but when I got older I started appreciating the growth and development Jim gets. I really admired him, even though he and I didn’t - and still don’t really - have anything in common.

“He was just so cool, so smart but did things his own way, not to mention brave and independent and strong-willed, and I remember wanting to be like him so much. I even cut my hair and got my ear pierced like him, and my mom gave me so much shit for it; pretty sure the twist she gave me on my non-pierced ear hurt more than the piercing.”

Keith chuckled at the thought of a young Lance rubbing his ear while his mother lectured him, and Lance lightly elbowed him in the side in retaliation. “Hey, it seemed like a cool idea at the time! Plus I really did look good with a gold hoop.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Sticking his tongue out at Keith’s teasing, Lance continued speaking. “Anyway, I really wanted to be like Jim, but I knew that I couldn’t be _exactly_ like him because our upbringings were different, but I figured the best way was to find my own way into space, so I joined the Garrison. And you know…” he trailed off, looking downward to watch his finger trace small circles on the blanket beside him. “Just so you know, if anyone ever asks you definitely never heard this from me, but when I first met you, you kinda reminded me of Jim.”

With a skeptical look, Keith glanced to the screen then back to Lance.

Huffing, Lance gestured to the screen vaguely. “I didn’t mean in appearance! I mean like you both had this chip-on-your-shoulder attitude and were super talented no matter what you did, and now that I know you better you’ve kinda got the dad issues going for you too.”

Keith considered this for a minute, thinking back on the movie and comparing Jim to himself. After a bit, he internally conceded that Lance had a point; there were some similarities between the two of them. He wouldn’t admit that to Lance though.

“And...and it sort of made me feel jealous, especially when I couldn’t quite manage to get high enough simulator scores to get on the fighter pilot track. It was pretty stupid, I know, but I forgot about the whole Jim thing not too long after when I found other reasons to consider you my rival. But I guess that’s what sorta kickstarted the whole rivalry idea.”

Hearing his confession, Keith found himself stuck on words. What was there to say? They had more or less worked past their rivalry and moved onto friendly competition, but he was never sure what to say regarding stuff that happened at the Garrison. His time at the Garrison had been...straining, to say the least.

After a minute, he finally spoke up, deciding to at least reassure Lance of the present. “Well, at least you got your space adventure, and all of us now.” The smile he got in return told him he’d said the right thing.

“You’re right, I get to live my dream, even if it’s not quite like Jim’s.”

“I dunno, we had an alien cyborg with a mechanical eye and arm that tried to take over our ship.”

Lance snorted. “I wouldn’t really put Silver and Sendak on quite the same level. Not that I saw all that much of Sendak while either of us was conscious. Plus he didn’t have a mech pegleg.”

It was Keith’s turn to snort then.

“But you know,” Lance cut in before Keith could speak. “There’s one thing I _really_ wanted to do, and that’s surf through the air like Jim does. But no matter how much I looked or how long I waited, no one on Earth seemed to have figured out how to make a solar surfboard, so I guess us humans just aren’t there yet.” He smiled ruefully, though his gaze was fond as he watched the movie. “Knowing my luck, it became the new fad not too long after we left.”

Keith hummed, thinking back to the beginning of the movie when Jim had been soaring through the air with hardly a care in the world. It did seem like a lot of fun, though he himself had never done anything like surfing or skateboarding his entire life. “You surf?”

“Of course! My family lived right by Varadero, so all of us knew how to swim, sail, and surf. As much as I love the water though, you’re limited to whatever the tides bring in, so if it’s a calm day there’s no surfing unless you go to a wave pool, and it’s just not the same. What Jim was doing, though? You’re not bound by anything! You can go wherever you want, not even the sky’s the limit with the proper gear! I wanted to experience that kind of freedom at least once...But I guess having Blue is as close as I’ll ever get, and that’s just fine with me, because what’s there to complain about a magic sentient robot space lion?”

Though Lance’s words sounded genuinely happy, Keith could tell it weighed a bit on Lance’s mind. Keith still didn’t feel confident in his ability to say something comforting however, so he only murmured in agreement and shifted closer in hopes of offering physical comfort instead. As the movie reached its climax, Keith felt his eyes begin to droop, but he fought to stay awake for Lance. It was a losing battle unfortunately, and he soon conceded defeat, the last thing on screen he saw as he shut his eyes being Jim Hawkins building a makeshift solar board and flying off to save the day. In his last few moments of wakefulness, an idea came into Keith’s head; tiredly, he made a mental note to pursue it later.

Of course, the team got swept into a new mission the next day, so he didn’t get the chance to do anything about the idea with everyone busy chasing Galra off the latest planet and helping with the subsequent cleanup. When they finally left several quintants later, castle loaded with new supplies and the planet’s natives sufficiently prepared for any further Galra attacks, Keith had nearly forgotten what it was he had planned to do; the memory flashed in his head while doing a training session a few hours after takeoff, almost breaking the flow of his movements, but he quickly defeated the training bot and ran off to find the pair who would surely help him make what he had in mind.

“Hey, Hunk, Pidge,” he called out as he entered the Yellow Lion’s hangar. Just as Pidge had made the Green Lion’s hangar their workspace, Hunk had set up shop in Yellow’s for eir own projects when ey needed a change of scenery from cooking. Frequently one, the other, or both could be found in either hangar whenever they acquired new tech.

The pair looked up from where they were hunched over...some mysterious device (they had collectively fawned over it while everyone was planetside, but Keith never quite understood what its function or purpose was). “Oh, hey, Keith,” greeted Hunk, sitting up straight. “Something up?”

“Nothing bad, I just wanted to ask you two for help with something,” he assured, walking closer. He made a quick glance around. “First, have you seen Lance around here?”

Pidge and Hunk exchanged curious glances before Pidge spoke up. “Not in a long while. I think he and Allura were having a spa day since that last planet was - to quote Lance - ‘hell on their pores.’ Might’ve also heard Lance say something about getting Shiro to join in too. Why?”

“What I want help with is sort of a surprise for Lance, so I don’t want him finding out about it.”

That caused eyebrows to raise in interest, so Keith explained what it was he had planned; a solar surfing board, just like in Treasure Planet. As soon as ey understood what Keith was talking about however, Hunk immediately put eir foot down.

“Nope! No way!” ey said vehemently, shaking eir head and crossing eir arms. “Not doing it!”

Pidge, on the other hand (to no surprise), was very much on board with the idea, eyes lighting up as Keith explained. Hearing Hunk’s refusal, they turned to the Yellow Paladin with a pout.

“Aw, c’mon, Hunk, why not? It’d be fun to put together!”

“Nope, did you see that movie? A board like that is _way_ dangerous! I’m not letting my best bud get hurt or killed over an extreme space sport.”

Keith knew ey had a point, but he also really wanted to do this for Lance; the look on his face and tone of his voice as he talked about the movie, about solar surfing, struck a chord with Keith, and he wanted to do something about it.

“It doesn’t have to be an exact replica, just really close,” he reasoned. “We can make adjustments to make it safer, and with you helping we all know it’ll be the safest it can be, especially if it’s for Lance. It’s just...when he was talking to me about his dream of surfing among the stars, he sounded so...wistful, like it was a far-off thing that could never happen for him, but we can _make_ it happen for him.”

Hunk was still frowning, but Keith could tell eir resolve was wavering. Seeing this, Pidge stepped in to help.

“Think about how happy it’d make him, Hunk. Lance does nice things for all of us all the time, why don’t we give back to him? We can make it a present for his next birthday from all of us!” they exclaimed.

Letting out a groan, Hunk’s shoulders dropped in defeat. “I’m not gonna win this one. Fine, I’ll join in because I know you two will make it a death trap if I don’t, whether you do it on purpose or otherwise.” Ey gave a small smile. “And I know he’s always wanted a solar surfing board, so I guess I can’t really deny him that.”

“So, we all in? Are we gonna build this board?” Keith asked.

“Yeah, let’s do this!” Pidge cheered, throwing their arms up into the air, causing the other two to laugh at their enthusiasm.

Hunk pulled out some blueprint paper and the trio quickly got to work on the design. Admittedly Keith wasn’t of much help, as engineering wasn’t something he was well-versed in, but he piped in with suggestions and adjustments where he could. By the time the dinner call rang out, they’d more-or-less gotten a sketch of how they wanted it to look and notes for how they wanted it to work. Promising to reconvene another time when Lance was busy and therefore wouldn’t poke his nose in, they hid the plans away and went off to get food.

Over the next couple weeks, working bit by bit between missions and other activities and always making sure that Lance was occupied elsewhere so he wouldn’t be suspicious of them, the three of them managed to get the plans mostly finished.

“I feel like there’s something we’re missing something,” Hunk mused with a frown as ey stared at the blueprints, scratching underneath eir headband with eir pencil. “Like something’s off.”

Pidge frowned as well, nodding in frustrated agreement. Keith shrugged helplessly; he’d reached his limit of understanding a while ago and done what he could to help them. “Maybe we need a set of fresh eyes on this,” he suggested.

“Set of fresh eyes on what?”

The trio jumped at the sudden new voice, whipping their heads to the entrance of the hangar to see Shiro walking in with a raised eyebrow. Seeing it wasn’t Lance, they collectively let a breath of relief.

“We’re making a present for Lance, but the planning and design stage isn’t going so well,” Pidge explained, gesturing to the blueprints spread across the worktable. “We’ve sort of hit a wall.”

“Ah, so that’s what you three have been up to. Been wondering what you’ve sneaking off to do every couple days,” Shiro said, stopping to peer at the papers.

“You wouldn’t happen to know what Lance is up to right now, would you?” Hunk asked carefully, eyes shifting to the door of the hangar as if Lance could show up any minute (which he very well could have).

“He and Coran were working together to clean the teludav lenses last I checked. Overheard them exchanging stories; I think Lance was regaling Coran about some incident involving a school play?”

Hunk chuckled, shaking eir head. “Oh, yeah, if he’s telling that story then they’re plenty occupied. He practically turns his retelling of that into a production itself and it gets longer each time he tells it.”

“I don’t doubt it, he seemed pretty into it.” Shiro smiled, then leaned over the table to get a closer look. “So what are you stuck on? Maybe I could help?”

Before long, Shiro was helping too, pointing out mistakes in calculations and making adjustments to the plan to reduce drag and other things. An hour and a half later, they finally finished.

“We’ve got it! Now for the really fun part, putting it together!” Pidge giggled excitedly, rocking in her seat.

“You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d almost think this present is more for you than Lance considering how eager you are to build it,” Keith commented with a playful smirk, letting out a chuckle when Pidge reached over to give him a half-hearted shove.

“ _Rude_. As much fun as I’ll have putting this together, I’m pretty sure Lance is gonna love it more.”

“Speaking of,” Shiro interrupted. “Where are you planning on getting the parts?”

The trio looked at each other, evidently having just come to this realization.

“Oh.”

“That’s a good point.”

“Didn’t think of that.”

Shaking his head and smiling in an exasperated manner, Shiro stood straight. “Why don’t we ask Coran? He’d probably have a good idea on where to find parts in the castle or on any of our supply stops.”

“Good idea! I can ask him the next time we make dinner together. Maybe the rest of you could run interference on Lance to make sure he doesn’t sneak in to sample some food and overhear something,” added Hunk, getting nods in agreement in response from the other three. “Great! I know I was hesitant to do this before and not gonna lie I still sort of am but I just know he’s gonna love this solar board so now I’m pretty pumped!” Reaching over, ey pulled Pidge and Keith into a big hug, earning grins from the both of them even as their faces were smooshed into eir shoulders.

The next day, Keith and Shiro occupied Lance while Hunk talked to Coran as they worked together to cook. Coran, of course, was happy to help, saying he’d always wanted to see this “surfing” that Lance and Hunk described, and after everyone ate he took Hunk and Pidge to the castle storage to find anything that could work for their purposes. After that, he joined in on the building process, explaining how certain parts worked and finding equivalent things Alteans or other species used that worked like the paladins described. Progress was slow; they got a couple prototypes going quickly enough, but the first sputtered out and the second burst into purple flames, so adjustments were evidently in order.

Like the plans, they worked on the board little by little, often in random shifts and moving their workspace from hangar to hangar so as to avoid Lance’s suspicion; after all, if all of them (or just certain groupings of them) kept disappearing at around the same times, it would be awfully strange. Luckily so far Lance had yet to catch on to anything. Allura, though…

“What are all of you doing?”

Keith, Pidge, and Coran froze at hearing Allura’s commanding voice, turning to see her standing nearby with her arms crossed and a frown, eyeing the three of them critically. The trio exchanged glances - likely debating on how much to tell her, she thought - before Coran cleared his throat and turned to her properly.

“Ah, Princess! What brings you here?” he greeted, earning a groan and facepalm from Keith and Pidge respectively.

Allura’s gaze narrowed. “The mice have been informing me that the three of you along with Hunk and Shiro are being secretive about some sort of project. I’ve come to ask why Lance and I are being left out of this project,” she answered, tone short. She only grew more irritated and curious when Keith and Pidge gave panicked looks. “What?”

“You didn’t mention this to Lance at all, did you?” Keith asked.

“Nothing beyond inquiring what he thought you three were currently doing, why?”

The three let out sighs of relief, relaxing. “We’re working on a present for Lance, and it’s supposed to be a surprise,” explained Pidge, shifting themself a bit to show the latest prototype. “We didn’t mean to leave you out; it started just with Keith, Hunk, and I, and then Shiro and Coran ended up coming in to help with things.”

“Would you like to help, Princess?” Coran offered gently.

Blinking, Allura’s frown relaxed into surprise. “Oh. Well, that’s rather kind of all of you. That depends, what is it you are making exactly?”

“A solar surfing board like in that Treasure Planet movie we watched a while back.”

“Oh! If that’s the case, I’m sure I won’t be of much help with building, but perhaps I can be of assistance elsewhere.”

“Hm...we could always use help distracting Lance; you know how he likes to explore and check on all of us when he’s got nothing else to do,” Keith suggested after a moment of thought.

“That I can do. I can also try to find an appropriate peaceful planet to properly test it on when you’ve got it working.”

“That’d be great! Thanks, Allura!” Pidge chirped, waving an Altean wrench in a makeshift salute.

With Allura assisting with Lance interference, it became easier for them all to coordinate construction schedules, and their progress steadily increased. Still, it took several months and prototypes, and sometimes they were hindered by certain people getting distracted with additions (“No, Pidge, you’re not putting a booster in.” “That only blew up once and it was Keith’s fault!” “Was not!”). **[7]**

Meanwhile, Lance was starting to get suspicious. He’d been noticing over the last while that whenever two or three of his friends were missing and he went looking for them, one of the others (particularly Allura) would pop up to pull him into some other activity or task. If he ever expressed a passing thought of going to the hangars, someone would change the subject or direct him elsewhere. He figured it was nothing bad, but as time dragged on, it was becoming more and more obvious that the others were hiding something from him. Nonetheless, he let them be, figuring if they needed his help with whatever it was, they’d ask (even if he felt a little hurt they were leaving him out of it).

Finally, _finally_ , after many months of work, they had something. The design had changed a lot from when they’d started, and it didn’t work perfectly, but it worked well enough. The breakthrough came one morning a couple weeks before Lance’s birthday. Hunk, Keith, and Pidge stared at their creation in awe.

“Guys. We. Are. _Awesome_ ,” Pidge breathed.

“Oh, Lance is gonna love this so much,” agreed Hunk, snapping out of eir stupor to giggle excitedly. “Now we just need to test it!”

That snapped Keith out of his own stare; with a bright look in his eyes and a determined set to his jaw, he turned on his heel and headed out of the hangar.

“Wait, Keith, where’re you going?” Hunk called after him.

“To get Lance of course!” he called back.

“What?!” Keith may have been speed-walking, but Hunk in full-on worrywart mode was faster; the Yellow Paladin practically seemed to fly across the room to grab Keith by shoulders and halt him. “But we still need to test it! What if it’s not safe?! Can’t _you_ test it?”

Frowning, Keith shook his head and wiggled loose from Hunk’s grip. “No, Lance _has_ to be the first one to fly it,” he insisted. “No matter what, Hunk. He’s been dreaming about doing this for so long, and while he’s pretty much gotten over our rivalry, I think it’d hurt him if he found out that I got to try it first, even if it was just to test it out.”

The two of them stared each other down, neither wanting to back off, but eventually Hunk let out a sigh and stepped back. “Alright, but if this goes wrong, you and I are having words.”

Keith did not doubt that; a protective Hunk was a Hunk to be feared. Nonetheless, he smiled gratefully, then reached out to nudge the other’s shoulder with a fist. “Hey, I have confidence that you made it the safest it could be for Lance, big guy. I’m sure it’ll go fine.”

Hunk smiled back, blushing a bit at the praise, and let Keith go.

“So I guess we should call everyone else down here if we’re gonna be presenting this thing now,” Pidge mused dryly from across the room.

Keith dashed through the hallways to the bedrooms, coming to a sliding stop at the door to Lance’s quarters and knocking loudly and continuously; he knew it was a bit early for Lance to be up on a day off, but this couldn’t wait. “Lance! Lance, wake up!”

“What?!” The door slid open to reveal a bedraggled Lance, glaring at the intrusion to his morning routine. His face was freshly washed, but he’d evidently only woken up in the past ten minutes or so since he was still in his pyjamas. “What do you want that requires interrupting my routine?”

“Come with me!”

Not giving Lance a chance to argue, he grabbed the other by the wrist and turned to head back to the hangar, earning a squawk.

“Wha- Keith! Hold the phone a minute! I’m still in my pjs!” Lance protested, attempting to dig his heels in as he was practically dragged down the hall. “At least let me put my binder on instead of a sports bra!”

“Sports bra will probably be better, trust me.”

“Will you at least tell me what you’re dragging me into?!”

“It’s a surprise!”

“Ugh, fine! But if this is anything less than absolutely amazing, I’m having the mice hide your Galra knife again.”

Keith ignored him, and Lance continued to grumble the entire way back down to the hangar, but the griping ceased as they entered to find everyone gathered at the centre.

“Whaaaaat’s going on…?” Lance questioned carefully, looking to each of them. “What’s this surprise you’ve got? I thought my birthday wasn’t for another couple weeks?”

“It is, but _someone_ couldn’t wait to show you this apparently,” Shiro replied, sending a pointed look to Keith, who didn’t appear at all remorseful.

Letting go of Lance, Keith stepped away to stand in front of the others, addressing Lance. “So, this was initially my idea because of something you told me, but we all worked together on this because we all wanted to help put something together that would make you happy, so consider this your early birthday present from all of us.”

Lance rose an eyebrow and tilted his head, interest piqued. “Ooookay?”

Glancing to each other, the rest of Team Voltron all nodded and stepped to the side, revealing something that was unfamiliar to Lance but not at the same time. The sail glowed a faint teal, and the board itself was shaped different, but Lance couldn’t believe it. His eyes went wide in shock, jaw slack as he tried to process what he was looking at. Seeing that eir buddy was too stunned to move himself, Hunk picked up the board, pressing a button to retract the sail, and brought it over for Lance to inspect.

“Hunk…” Lance murmured as he continued to stare wide-eyed at the board, carefully taking it into his arms. “Is...Is this what I think it is…?”

“The design’s a little different because we had to make use of whatever parts we could find and I wanted to make it a little safer, and it’s technically not quite finished, but yeah, it’s a solar surfing board,” replied Hunk quietly.

Lance’s mouth opened and closed several times, then he finally tore his gaze away to look at everyone, eyes watery. “But...why?”

“You do nice things for all of us all the time, Lance,” Allura gently answered. “You’re always happy to help me with my hair and listen to me rant about our latest diplomacy mission.”

“You offer to play video games with me when I’m down or frustrated with a project,” Pidge piped in.

“Movie nights were your idea together with Hunk, and they’re always my favourite times since everyone gets to spend time together relaxing,” explained Shiro, giving Lance a soft smile.

“You also make us all little presents all the time with that knitting of yours!” Coran chirped. “Not to mention you’re always willing to listen to my old boot camp stories and tell me some of your own.”

“You’re the absolute best friend I could ever ask for,” gushed Hunk.

“Overall, you help all of us to feel a little less homesick, even when you’re feeling homesick yourself,” Keith finished. “So we just thought we’d return the favour a bit.”

By this point, Lance was openly crying, the board clutched in his arms, but even through the tears he was clearly grinning. “You guys...You guys are the best,” he croaked. “I never thought a boy from Cuba like me would ever...I can’t even begin…”

Taking initiative, Hunk stepped forward and wrapped Lance into a gentle hug, kissing the top of his head affectionately. Keith joined soon after, wrapping his arms around the two of them, followed by Pidge, Shiro, Allura, and finally Coran, making one big hugging circle with Lance at the centre. They stayed like that for several minutes, murmuring assurances and surrounding Lance with love and warmth. Eventually Lance nudged someone as a signal that they could pull away, nodding his head gratefully as they each did.

Giving a watery laugh, he wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his pyjamas. “I’m gonna have to wash my face all over again if I don’t want my eyes to be all puffy,” he joked, readjusting his grip on the board. “But I guess that can wait just once if it means I get to try this thing out.”

“Well, that’s why I dragged you here in the first place.”

“I think Lance needs to get into something a little more appropriate for flying through the air before we can let him actually test it,” Shiro chided good-naturedly.

Lance snorted. “Okay, _dad_.”

Shiro rolled his eyes with a smile as the others laughed. While he seemed reluctant to let go of his gift so soon, Lance passed the board back to Hunk and raced back to his room to get changed. To no one’s surprise, he was back in full paladin armour in record time, grinning excitedly as he made grabby hands for the board. Everyone then made their way to the shuttle pod room; they were currently stationed on a planet they’d just liberated, and with the inhabitants being nomads who travelled by foot, the skies were wide open and perfect for test flights. Allura, Shiro, and Coran had been strategically planning their last couple stops when they knew that Lance’s board was nearing completion, so this was no coincidence.

“I almost can’t believe everyone built this for me! Pidge didn’t put any boosters in, did she?” Lance crowed as he bounced where he sat excitedly, waiting for the pod to land.

“No, and today’s a ‘they’ day, Lance.”

“Oh, sure thing.”

Lance was out of his seat as soon as the pod touched the ground, moving from foot to foot eagerly (impatiently) as the hatch slowly opened. Several of the others couldn’t help but laugh as he practically shot out the opening the moment it was big enough for him and his new board to fit through.

“Okay, okay, how does this thing work? Wait, no, don’t tell me, I’ll figure it out myself. This button...closes the sail, okay, not a good start but I can roll with that--”

“You sure you don’t want instructions?” Hunk said dryly, knowing the answer.

“No, I got this!”

“Alright, if you say so.”

There were a couple false starts, but Lance did eventually get the board going, and before long he was whizzing through the air, whooping and hollering as he flipped, spun and looped around. Down below on the ground, the team looked on with proud, happy smiles on their faces.

**Author's Note:**

> Footnotes:
> 
> [1] - So, prior to Lauren Montgomery saying that Lance is apparently the youngest of his siblings, I had the headcanon that Lance is the middle child (a thought apparently shared by Joaquim Dos Santos). My headcanon names for his siblings here are (from oldest to youngest) Viviana, Tristan, Izzy, and Jennifer. All their names are subtle references to characters in Arthurian romance; Viviane is one of the names for the Lady of the Lake, Tristan was a Knight of the Round Table, Iseult/Isolde was the name of Tristan’s lover as well as her mother (the two of them are just named after the characters though, so no incest here), and Jennifer is a form of the name Guinevere. Also, in case you’re wondering, Izzy is nonbinary!
> 
> [2] - I will 100% admit that this was inspired by The Parent Trap (specifically the Lindsay Lohan version), where one twin has her ears pierced but the other doesn’t, so they kinda do a back alley ear piercing with a sewing needle sterilized with fire and an apple. Don’t do this people, get a professional piercer to do it to make sure it’s done properly and safely! This has been a PSA. (Also, can I just take this moment to say that Lance with Jim's undercut-rattail combo would be simultaneously adorable and hilarious? Probably half the reason why he teases Keith about his mullet is because he remembers when he made a bad haircut decision.)
> 
> [3] - Josh Keaton has said that Shiro loves memes, so I think he’d be the type to watch silly videos like bad lip readings and find them hilarious.
> 
> [4] - So! If you couldn’t guess/weren't paying attention to the tags, in this story Lance is a trans man, Shiro is demimasculine, Pidge is genderfluid (between female and nonbinary, using she/her and they/them pronouns as needed), and Hunk is nonbinary using ey/em/eir pronouns! Those are the only “official” genders I headcanoned for the story, but you’re free to interpret Keith, Allura, and Coran however you like!
> 
> [5] - I’d like to thank my fellow zine participants for giving me ideas for Coran’s pjs, because I was absolutely stuck for what to give him. The final result is actually a mix of several ideas, and unfortunately I don’t remember who suggested what, so if any of you are reading this, thank you all collectively!
> 
> [6] - I had the idea of Brother Bear being Shiro’s favourite for a while now because I think he’d enjoy the themes it has, but in hindsight it’s hilarious considering the “quit telling everyone I’m dead!” line has become popular in relation to the fandom thinking Shiro’s going to die with every new season, hahaha. And of course since I was talking Disney, I had to include a nod to the wall-climbing scene in Emperor’s New Groove.
> 
> [7] - Yes this is a direct reference to Pidge’s pod modification that ended up blowing up on Keith and Allura in season 2. Considering Pidge had no real reason to add that modification, I’m inclined to believe that Pidge loves adding extras to things for Science™, and has a particular fondness for boosters.


End file.
